All Packed Up!

In November we made the decision to look for a house to call our very own. After much thought and consideration we finally found a home that would be good for our family. We were able to move in pretty quick and found ourselves packing our things up in the beginning of December.

Here is the big helper. (snacking away on some crackers) Emerson thought it was a lot of fun putting everything into boxes...until we got to his toys.

Emerson was very excited about moving into our "new" home.

Temple Trip

The day after thanksgiving we made a trip to the London Temple. While waiting for Stephen the boys and I went inside the visitor's center. Inside is a huge statue of Jesus. Emerson likes to sit and listen to the music and the little message that they play, after it was finished he asked if he 'could listen to Jesus again.' I thought it was very sweet and it made the people who worked there chuckle. So we listened to Jesus for a second time and then waited in a different room. Canyon was also very intrigued by it all, he seemed to be looking at the statue as if he recognized it.

Thanksgiving Day

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. In the morning I went to a friends house to learn how to make everything from scratch: pumpkin pie, stuffing, yams/sweet potatoes, rolls and cranberry sauce. After spending a couple hours cooking it started to really feel like Thanksgiving. After some cooking I came back home to find some very cute boys in blue.

Emerson getting tackled by his brother.

*****

We then all went to our friends house and enjoyed a very yummy thanksgiving meal. We all had a very enjoyable afternoon, spending time with friends, eating way too much food, relaxing after eating too much food, chewing on flip flops (Canyon), and hording all the balls in the house (Emerson).

We are very grateful for wonderful friends and a loving family. We are also grateful for this special season of giving.

Pie Night

Some of our friends invited us over the night before Thanksgiving for a fun tradtion that they have started - Pie Night. It's a fun opportunity to get together with friends and enjoy lots of yummy pies. We had a wonderful time and though I forgot to take any pictures of the evening I just wanted to share this fun idea with everyone.

Turkey Bowl

At the beginning of this past week the boys and I went to watch Stephen play in a football game on base. They have a Turkey Bowl every year where the JAC (the computer geeks) play against the 423rd (those who have more physical jobs like security forces). It was a very cold and windy day but Emerson loves watching his daddy play sports so we were there to cheer him on.

Stephen did well and scored two of our teams three touchdowns. Below are a couple pictures from an interception that Stephen ran in for a touchdown.

We watched the second half of the game from the car and then rejoined the fans for the last minute of the game. The JAC won, which extended their reign as champions of the Turkey Bowl.

Six Months

Where has the time gone? Canyon is already six months old. We had his six month well baby appointment last week and he is 17.5 lbs and nearly 27 inches long. He's a big boy and such a sweetie. He loves to cuddle and loves attention. He loves his older brother, even when he's not being the most gentle. He sucks on his bottom lip and much prefers that to a pacifier. He can sit up on his own, but you do have to be careful because he'll take a dive to get to something out of his reach. He has been able to roll over for a while now and is starting to try and get onto all fours. He is very strong and can lift his pudgy tummy off the floor. He is doing pretty good with solids, his favorites thus far are squash and peaches. He is such a fun, precious little guy and we couldn't imagine not having this cutie in our family.

The Boys and Their Balls

I came into the living room the other day to find Canyon and Emerson sitting on the couch, each with a basketball in hand. (Don't worry they weren't unattended, Stephen was with them.) They were very happy with their balls and looked cute together. Stephen has done a very good job at teaching our boys about important things like balls and cars.

A Couple of Monkeys

I didn't get any really good pictures of the boys in their monkey costumes at the trunk-or-treat so we spent a couple minutes in the studio before packing their costumes away.

I thought Emerson made a really cute monkey - mainly because his personality matches that of a monkey.

Canyon was an adorable little monkey too. His round face and chubby body fit his costume perfectly.

Both of the boys were very entertained with their tail.

This is not the best photo but I thought that it was cute that Emerson was scratching his ear.

Sleeping?

We were driving to an activity a couple nights ago and as we were driving along Stephen and I herd a funny noise coming from the back where the boys were sitting. When we focused in on the noise we recognized it as Emerson snoring. But he wasn't actually asleep, he was just fake snoring very loudly. We laughed a little bit and then asked Emerson if he was awake but he didn't respond, just kept on snoring. We asked him a couple more questions to try and get him to laugh or break his snoring but he just continued. After another minute or two we went through an area that had a lot of street lamps and then we suddenly hear Emerson announce, "It's awake time now!" We thought it was pretty funny and had a good laugh. We couldn't believe how he could keep such a serious composure and not get distracted by our comments and questions. Emerson said a lot of other funny things that night though I can't remember them all. He's quite comical at times and definitely keeps life entertaining.

Faces

I went to take some pictures of Emerson and Canyon hanging out together and couln't stop laughing. Every picture of Canyon I took was of him making a different silly face. Emerson wannted to join in too. The end result? A bunch of silly faces from our two boys.

Blowing Bubbles.

I'm Gonna Get You.

Hey! I'm Over Here!

The Tongue.

More of the Tongue.

A Smile!

A Sleepy Boy.

Innocent.

Or Maybe Not.

The Tongue.

A Whole Lotta Tongue.

Big Cheesier!

Happy Halloween

Saturday night we had a Halloween carnival and trunk or treat at the church. It was the first year that Emerson really understood what was going on. It was so fun to see his excitement when he realized that all he had to do was go up to someone and say 'trick or treat' and then they would put candy into his little bag. After each car he would ask if there were more cars to go to. It was really cute. I only ended up taking a couple of pictures because I had to help with the activity. The one below is of Emerson after finishing the trunk or treat.

We're Back

Yes we're alive! - Though I don't have any pictures of the past couple weeks to prove it, so I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. We had a lovely vacation in the states and then spent a lot of time trying to get back to England via a military flight. And I could tell you a big long story about all of our adventures but I think instead I will just say that it was crazy and luck didn't every seem to be on our side. We have however made it back to England and now that jet lag is over we are back into the routine of things - for the most part. It was great to spend time with family, we wish we could of seen all of our family and are also happy to be back home amongst friends. So that's the past two or three weeks in a nutshell and now we will hopefullly be a bit more consistent with our blogging.

Big Brother, Little Brother

Emerson is the 'big brother' in our family and Canyon the 'little brother' but sometimes I think that Emerson is the 'little' brother and Canyon is the 'big' brother. Emerson is so petite and tiny next to Canyon and there is two years between them! The other night Emerson wanted to hold Canyon and I just couldn't get over how big Canyon looked next to Emerson and how tiny Emerson looked next to Canyon. I think it's fun.